Together Again

Busy morning here at the ranch getting things ready for Pea’s arrival this afternoon. The pups enjoyed a nice hike down past the papaya trees to visit with their little puppy friend. Another perfect day weatherwise. 

Back at the house I was working hard to get everything in order for the return of the wife. Cleared the table, put away the dirty laundry and generally straightened the place up. I had polished up my bike a few weeks ago but neglected to service P.J.’s. Couldn’t figure out how to explain why her’s isn’t good to go but mine is, so I uncabled her ride and gave it a good washing then lubed up the chain. Had to persuade the tree frog that had taken up residence in her spokes that living on the mechanical end of a bicycle might not be the safest of accommodations.

The dogs were in serious need of a washing themselves, so as long as I had the hose out I decided to freshen them up a little as well. They really seemed to like the bath, at least the drying off part. I’m not so sure about the getting hosed down part of it. They love the towel massage. They ran around like dervishes afterwards shaking themselves off and rolling around in the grass. Totally fired up.

Barely had time to clean myself and race over to the office where Joaquin was waiting for me. We hopped in the Renault and headed off for the airport. Not only were we picking up P.J., but another couple was coming in on a Delta flight as well. I always enjoy riding into Puerto Vallarta as long as someone else is doing the driving.

We arrived with plenty of time and I went in to wait for Pamela to come out of the terminal. I saw on the one single monitor in the entire airport that her flight had just arrived. I stood over near the limo drivers for a while then an official looking lady came over and told me to stand in this corral with a million other people waiting for their loved ones. I saw the wife and kid of a guy behind the rope standing outside of it so I slipped in behind them and waited on the outside with them.

Nearly an hour after landing, P.J. finally emerged from the tunnel hauling two large suitcases and a couple of smaller bags. I raced forward to help and we embraced blocking the traffic flow as people tried to squeeze through the narrow gauntlet that is the Puerto Vallarta airport arrivals gate.

We made our way out into the fresh air and found Joaquin over by the Oxxo store. We stashed the bags in the van and began our vigil for the other couple, a husband and wife from Ontario, Canada. After a long wait, we finally found them then we all piled onto the shuttle while Joaquin went to pay the parking voucher. One of the machines was down so we sat in the van trying to make small talk for another twenty minutes while waiting to hit the road.

Finally made it home and hauled all of our baggage inside. Took the dogs out for a stroll around the grounds then closed ourselves in and caught each other up on our time apart. I cooked us up some omelets then we called it an early night. We’ll go through our suitcases tomorrow and check out all of our U.S. goods.